Organ Donors Should Consider Where Their Organs End Up

As of July, 50 New Yorkers waiting for liver transplants died waiting for an organ, according to the Organ Procurement and Transplant Network.

Johnny Concepcion is not one of them. Concepcion is 42 and a confessed wife killer. He stabbed his wife to death and then drank rat poison in a suicide attempt. The rat poison destroyed his liver so he needed a transplant to survive.

Kerry Sullivan, a fine, upstanding citizen of NYC, has waited a year for a transplanted liver.

The available liver went to . . . Johnny Concepcion — just days after he admitted murdering his wife and destroying his own liver in suicide action.

What?

I remember the furor when a liver transplant was given to Mickey Mantle of baseball fame, when the media revealed that he destroyed his own liver with eons of alcohol abuse.

Obviously, judgment calls have to be made. And they are not supposed to consider religion, gender, financial status, celebrity and so forth — that makes totally fair sense — but really.

Let’s go through this again. On July 5, the man murders a woman with 15 stab wounds (after a history of abusing her). Two days later, July 7, he tries to kill himself with rat poison, and he goes immediately to a hospital to get a transplant, passing almost 2,000 people on New York’s transplant list and gets an organ and then goes to jail.

I saw a newspaper photo of him in the hospital after the transplant — smiling and giving a V for victory hand signal.

What?

This is a comment from a citizen responding to this news story from the New York Post:


I have changed my mind on organ donation. I want absolute certainty that my organ goes to someone without a criminal history — or no thanks.

I believe it is time for people to put caveats on their organ donations: no convicted or confessed murderers, rapists, child molesters, homegrown terrorists, national traitors, long-term alcoholics who destroy their own livers and might likely destroy a new one . . . We need legislation or folks are going to be negative about organ donations.

If he were to get the death penalty . . . Could we give the liver back to someone he passed on the list?

Just asking.

I am wondering about the dot on my drivers license which indicates me as a potential organ donor. I frankly am going to find out if I can specify that the recipients all be small children. I’ll let you know.

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